ALLPI in collaboration with Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Trade of Kingdom of Eswatini conducted training on Footwear Design, Cutting and Assembling during 14th – 25th October 2019 in Ezulwini Valley, Kingdom of Eswatini. The Training venue was Cooperative College for the theoretical part and for the practical part was taking place in crafters training center. The Training was sponsored by Regional Integration Support Mechanism (RISM).
The objective of the training is to develop the Skills of Micro, Small and medium enterprises MSMEs on footwear making in the kingdom of Eswatini.
The Training was on the footwear making particularly Military boots since the MSMEs can get good market for such type of shoes supported by the government trend on purchasing these boots from local manufactures.
The supply side constrains on the leather and other inputs is one among other challenges facing the MSMES in Eswatini and reason behind that is non existence of tanneries and support industries in Eswatini.
Therefore, the country can utilize and take advantage of its membership of South Africa Customs Union (SACU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) to import all the raw materials and other inputs for footwear industry.
On the demand side the MSMEs they have good marketing opportunities especially in shoes and leather goods segments.
The training was attended by 34 trainees and out of them 25 were males three of them were people live with disabilities (PLWD) and 9 females.
The training was opened officially by the Director of MSMEs Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Trade of Kingdom of Eswatini.
At the end of the Training the trainees were able to produce boots and they have general idea of shoe making from the pattern making to assembling and finishing.
This training will be followed by ToT training under the same title and objectives and that to create training base from the citizen of the Eswatini on shoe making in kingdom of Eswatini.
